Dear webby..thnks for ur effort u hav taken to publish this article...i also recieved it by an Email...my Grattitude to the orginator...!!!!hope this message will go to all KK users and sinhalaya users...so we can be happy for some extent... tht we hav made some start...best regards... 8) DoNN

Unfortunately I have to disagree with everything said in this presentation. I also have to apologies for not being able to answer in Sinhalese, not because I cannot or don’t want to write in Sinhala, but because of the technical inability. I invite brothers and sisters of this forum to visit the general discussion section and read my Sinhala article. I disagree with Mr. Amarasekara’s presentation because of several reasons. Fist he doesn’t take into account a single socio-political or demographic factor as important, looks like he dismiss them as unimportant and backward thinking (waradi akalpa). Its true that we cannot develop solely by blaming on uncontrollable forces, but we will only succeed if we are fully aware of our obstacles and take the correct measures to fight them. It has been we’ll documented by various scholars in various institutes and countries that powerful countries always attempt to maintain their grip on weaker countries by imposing economic and political restriction. Unfortunately the truth is that no one want to see us develop not the western countries not even India. A very clear example is the current situation in the north east war. We can see that US and UK through their embassies are directly influencing the government not to defeat Prabakaran and end the war. Another example is the building of a new Sugar factor in Ampara. Our country do not produce enough sugar for our consumption so we need to produce sugar from our land, but we don’t have the capital and the technology to establish a good quality sugar plant, so the project was contracted to a British company, but they wanted to use only 35% of the plants capacity to produce sugar and the rest to produce alcohol. This again shows the complexity and deceitfulness of the global econo-political landscape.Secondly; disregarding all these factors Mr Amarasekara blames the people of this country, their attitudes (Akalpa) the education system and culture as the reasons holding our progress. First the education system is not ours, its something that the Britsih developed and was forced on us so Sri Lankans cannot be held responsible for its supposed perils. Mr Amarasekara goes on to point out several cultural characteristics as more prevalent among people of developed countries and lacking in people of under developed countries. He cite no sociological research or survey as his source for this information. Ethical, responsibility, honesty, dedication to work and saving for the future are some in his list. These are general human characteristics, any sensible person will disagree that most of us Sri Lankans lack those characteristics. It might be true that with people in countries like Somalia, Sierra Leon and Western Sudan, that are pushed to the brink of hopelessness show an erosion of these characteristics, in fact almost all the currently developed countries also passed a time in which there societies showed much more deterioration than our societies have ever seen. One just need to remind of US history, the great depression ear, law lessness , and the mafia violence that prevailed. The pre civil rights era, where black people had to stand up and give the seats to white people in public transportation systems. Some of these characteristics cannot seen even today in developed countries, a recent study showed that US people are among the lowest savers. US and most of the developing countries have a very high percentage of obese (Over weight) people, surely that cannot be form dedicated hard working. Finally I agree with Mr. Amarasekara that we need a attitude change (“Akalpa wenasak”, “Chinthana viplawayak”). But that is not the type Mr Amarasekara advocates for surely the list of characteristics he show wont harm anybody or any society, but we need a much more deeper intellectual debate about, Who we are? And Where we are heading for? We need to understand that “development” or “progress”, does not need to follow the western model, which’s effects like global warming, threatens to destroy the whole world. We need to find a model within our culture for development. Which supported our ancestors on this land for thousand of years, without destroying its recourses or environment. People like Mr Amarasekara will tell us that we need to be like white men (Or Japanese) to develop, we just have to pity the likes of Mr Amarasekara. I hope this will prompt a valuable debate on how to structure our development.

In the very outset i would like to thank Mr.Jaliya Banadara For showing encouraging and persuadable interest on my article.First of all i must mention that the article was not my Creation, it was received by an Email. Even though i thought i would share those delightful views with every one i know. So i can make others, realize of course up to some extent, about the bottlenecks and demoralizing factors which immensely effect the development of our beloved nation. It’s a matter of pleasure for me to notice that a valuable debate would start from this. i must thank the original creator of this mail for his effort put to compile that..certainly. i dont think there is anything mentioned in the article tht which we should discard as garbage, obviously we must feel sorry (with shame) or worried about us. what has mentioned there is true, as per my belief.Exact figures of various parameters have not been not taken into consideration there. but in overall.what has mentioned there is true...

Producing this article to Sinhalaya.. i didnt intend to make any controversy amongst us.. l only wanted is give an outline where we have stucked in developing our country..

MR.jaliya has mentioned that the present educational system had forced by Britishes on us so we are not responsible or blamed for its hazardous effects.. How can one agree that point? after the independence, our own people reign the country upto date. But unfortunately we have not been able to modify our educational system as needed by a nation who wants to rise in every aspect. For a simplest examlpe i would i like to say still the Sinhala language is the medium for education in majority of our schools. We learnt English, Science, Maths in Sinhala. so Mr Jaliya do u think that would help for us in higher studeis. Personally i faced this problem.

So friend.. Its a not a matter to shame about our inabilities or our short comings. This is also a major problem all Sinhala people face. We are not willing to accept our faults and shortcomings.. We need to emptied our heads fro these kind of attitudes before think about the country.

Still we are not too late... we can start it by our selves. We dont have to do any revolution. From our side we can start.. for an example we can adhere to rules and regulations imposed by the governing bodies.. i dont want to harp on this... if so i can write thousands on how as an individuals we irresponsible to various matters.

Mr.jaliya.i don’t totally disagree to u neither agree.There are MANY MANY MANY attitude problems within our selves. There is no point of fingering USA or UK or any other country for those. Though i do agree up to some extent that we have to be in the control of bigger nations. But recall, what is the beginning of that, its nothing but our "PARADEENA CHINTHANAYA"/"BACKWARD ATTITUDE"... (please notice that word “WE” refers all the Sinhala people, not an individual as such)i hope i had answer Mr.Jaliya according to the limited time i get.

i would like to see any further comments, debate or a forum be commenced about these TRUE but BITTER facts. To conclude I would say…“OUR THOUGHTS AND THE IMAGINATIONS ARE THE ONLY LIMITS FOR OUR POSSIBILITIES,DO UR BIT TO UR NATION..DONT WAIT TILL ANOTHER STEP UP..”

First let me thank Mr. Amarasekara for standing up to defend what he believe. It seems that my partially detailed essay and even my screen name confused Mr. A. I apologise for the inconvenience. I have attempted to clarify both in this. In my fist write up I tried to show that all the arguments presented are factually incorrect and I tried to provide real world examples that suggest the contrary. Here again in point form why I cannot agree with the presentation.

Mr. As presentations basic proposition is that developed societies possess a certain set of (9) “civilized” characteristics while undeveloped societies are deficient in those. So if undeveloped societies want to develop they better hurry and acquire those characteristics.This is what lawyers call a naked argument. The proposition is wrong to begin with. Can Mr A or anyone else cite a sociological study or any kind of a scientific analysis showing that developed societies are rich in the so called values while under developed societies are deficient in them? If not why do you believe it? Isn’t it just blind faith? Going beyond questioning this wrong proposition, I provided historical and contemporary examples (Can be cited if needed) showing even the developed western societies are impaired of those values.

The other implicit statement of Mr. As proposition is that if we want to develop we better be like westerners. He goes on to blame the education system as the reason hindering us from becoming so. For the moment I won’t complicate the issue by dealing with education. I showed earlier that the 9 characteristics Mr. A propose are no different between, westerners (developed countries) and us (undeveloped), but I accept there are other differences, and here is why we should reject western concepts. Are the western countries really developing? Can the world’s resources and environment sustain a western model consumer based development for all the countries in the world? The simple answer is no, (again scientific studies can be cited). There are studies showing that if we continue even at the current rate of green house gas emissions and other environmental pollution this world will pass a point of no return towards destruction in another several decades. So what is the answer? The answer lies with non westerners, who’s’ peaceful non warring societies spanned for millennia without destroying this world and its environment, before the “civilized” “ethical” westeners invaded them burned their scholarly institutes, killed their scholars, and raped their women.For the moment let’s not complicate matters by dealing with other global econo-political forces that control our development. Its certain that we need an attitude change (Akalpa wenasak) but unfortunately it’s the very attitudes that Mr A is trying to force on us that we have to fight against, the worlds future depends on this.